Funny Photos of Bush

I just came across this link of some photographs taken at very inappropriate moments or mid way between a gesture that do reflect as funny.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-36649.html

Memories of a lifetime - RECD

Last weekend we spent time with our friends from RECD at the Changi Club in Singapore. Here are the pictures from that fabulous and nostalgic evening. This was our second meet in 2008 in Singapore.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chirantansaha/SingaporeRECMeet?authkey=KE614QZmWGs

While at the meet, one of the newbies shared pictures from the college as it stands today.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chirantansaha/NITRECDurgapur?authkey=3hpymwxko3c#

Hope those who see it enjoy it.

Anniversary at Singapore

Well it’s been now more than a year that I am living in Singapore. Although I have been traveling across the world for over a decade now, it’s been a transition for me and my family to a foreign land over the last one year. And a year it has been to shatter some of my old school beliefs, some assumptions which I had taken as a given, but in a global world I am coming to realize them as too narrow to have a meaning for me today. Let me explore some of these.

1. Education System: Our education system has never been able to address global behaviour and ethics. So my learnings have been mostly first hand. Every day that I spend here I am now able to appreciate, not only Singaporean culture, Chinese culture, North and South Asian Cultures, Australian culture but have started to appreciate Indian culture and things that I miss here.
2. Etiquette: When people ask you, “How are you?”, they are very seldom genuinely interested in your story. All they want to hear is everything is hale and hearty and never could be better. No one has time for your sob stories. So standardize your answers as “Brilliant / Never Better / Great / Having Fun / You know last weekend, we went to this fabulous … “ yada yada.
3. Time Management: Between the two extreme ends of the region I operate in, there is a narrow margin of one hour when both ends are in their working hours. To be able to manage a conference to match everyone’s expectations is an acrobatic feat in Microsoft Outlook Calendar Management. And time does mean differently in different parts of the region. The Japanese people with whom I worked like to work till late in the night in their offices and drink till wee hours of the morning. Australians like to keep things short, focused and finish in time for dinner at 6 and beer for later. Singaporeans love their lunch. Indians have Indian Stretchable Timetable all the time. Jakarta reminded me of traffic jams in Chandni Chowk and Ghatkopar – how the hell do people do more than two customer meetings in a day is a mystery to me.
4. Culture: I realized that just like when we generally look at a sardar, we cannot make him out as different from another. I mean facial features are so similar that unless you understand the person well, they may seem similar. On a similar note, I for one never could differentiate between a Chinese, Korean, Japanese and a Singaporean. At least I have learnt some special habits, cultures, practices and diction that differentiate in my mind these set of people. It has been a very revealing experience and an education which continues as I live on. I have learnt to love Japanese food – who says you cannot have uncooked food? I found amazing Khimchi in Korea.
5. Being a Singaporean: I learnt the passion of an average fellow Singaporean that I can learn from includes, their passion for multi culture cuisine, their favourite pass time of shop till you drop attitude (its amazing to see how they can find out the best sale and discounts, the most value for money deals in any market across the globe) and oh the drive to keep up physical fitness (I have actually seen people jogging on the roads at 3 am – when I usually am not awake, but happened to chance on a late night flight that got delayed).
6. Advancing Years: As I grow older, I have been able to appreciate the “loneliness” of older generation. Most amazingly I have been approached at least couple of times by elderly Singaporeans who said Hi and asked if I would like to become friends with them. Indeed, I now realize that after an age of active life, life after is one filled with pain and loneliness. I hope I will have friends, family and foes to keep me busy.
7. Management: There are tremendous learning that we can take from major management events. F1 Grand Prix Night Race which was witnessed by people from all over the world, was immaculately planned and executed. Every office that I go for government services, its planned and thought through. Transportation system so good, that at times I feel that I own the bus in which I am traveling coz I am the only one and yet, the buses run on time and rarely break down. Means their maintenance schedules are very well managed. Even a Zoo and its management is worth looking at. There is so much to learn all around.
   

I will write again as I live life as a seasoned Singaporean this year.

Making History at Olympics

Yesterday while watching the closing ceremony at Beijing Olympics, I felt pride.

Pride about two very important things. That as a Foreigner living in Singapore, I watched with equal passion and trepidation that final between Singapore and China in ping pong game. I cheered every point that Singapore won. And I loved the fact that small TVs in different small shops or large screens in large malls were all showing the golden moments. And I loved the pride in my fellow Singaporeans hearts about this amazing winning feat which they won after 40 plus years of effort. It was a moment in HISTORY.

If Michael Phelps was a country, he would be placed high in the list of countries.

Secondly, I had written a while back about “will 1 be all …” in which I wrote about India and the fact that it takes a lot to get that 1 gold medal and I am not just proud of that moment but many more.

Today while reading on the net, I saw this article by Shekar Gupta which I completely agree with and wanted to capture for this discussion. I am proud of the fact that for once parents are getting out of their stereotyping the career of kids. They are quickly accepting the fact that “sports” can be a “career”! I remember in good old school days in one of the debate competition, we had a topic called “Padoge Likhoge Banoge Nawaab, Kheloge Koodoge Hoge Kharaab”! (means “if you read and write, you will become a “Prince”, if you play and jump, you will become a rot.). I distinctly remember one of our great debaters who happened to go ahead and represent my state “Rajasthan” in Ranji Cricket had come on the stage against the motion and had put across what he saw as the emerging “career” in sports. I did not have the guts then to go against my parents to do the unthinkable, and give a go at the sports that I loved.

And nothing more be said about sports than what Shekhar just pointed out. We are now witnessing the coming of age of that thought / philosophy on “Padoge Likhoge Banoge Nawaab, Kheloge Koodoge Hoge Kharaab”. There is nothing wrong then, and there is nothing wrong now. At those times, India required good quality professionals like Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, Architects etc. Today we need good sports people to build our nation’s pride and status. Interestingly, Shekhar at the end points to a very interesting “PS” post script about Dingko Singh. You know what I am also absolutely proud about the “salt-of-the-earth” behaviour which is so Indian.

Telecommuting

Today I would like to look at this increasingly used model of working in Corporates. While many companies still believe in face to face as the only method of interacting within employee community, many have started on the path to telecommuting as a way of life. 

As a partial telecommuting professional, here are some of my experiences of the pros and cons. As always, there are two sides of the coin, and here too I have tried to keep it balanced.

POSITIVES:

1. We save a lot of carbon footprint if we telecommute. Think of cars, public transport etc that get reduced load since people are putting less pressure on the resources. Especially relevant for countries that see tremendous traffic jams during peak hours. And especially relevant also to countries where Car Pooling is considered almost a “crime” and looked down upon. On the flip side, it really puts the pressure on your own home infrastructure since you are consuming more Airconditioning, Lighting, Telephone and Wireless.
2. You get to see your family more (only for those who are married and have a family). 
   We used to joke about how our kids are growing up laterally coz we don’t get time to see them horizontally, meaning since you work so long hours, the kids go to sleep way before you land up at home. That way you only saw them growing up in their sleep. On the flip side, I do remember my wife asking me to take the kids to the school bus stand. They are yet to wake up to the fact that we are working, so what if we are still in our PJs. 
   One of the days I remember we were having a conference call and a very serious fight broke out about what should be the relevant strategy to move forward, and lo behold, there was a very naughty little voice that started talking baby gibberish. For a moment the whole conference went silent, and then the whole group broke out laughing. It seems that one of the participants son had picked up the extension and started giving his advice.
3. It improves your ability to influence your “work / life balance”. I have seen many people trying to juggle a budding career with priorities at home. In the process they lag behind in both the aspects of their life – work and home. And then it soon spirals into a trying to catch up on things game. On the flip side, it gives into the hands of most people an ability to do whatever you please with time. As you know non productive work does expand to fill up your time. So there is a serious concern felt by many that individuals do personal work when official work needs to take priority. 
   It’s like the Biology experiment of frog in water that is kept for boiling. At the end of the experiment boiling water brings the death of the frog. The frog does not understand the changes in the environment as it is subtle but keeps degrading to a point where it looses all its body controls to take corrective action. My point, this freedom to manage your time is a big responsibility and only the best know how to manage it well and to your benefit.
4. It reduces the infrastructure cost per employee. For many companies their sales reps, service reps, and logistics teams are constantly on the move. Does it make sense to have dedicated workspaces for such members when their most productive (read revenue generating time) is out with customers? On the flip side, there are employees like project managers, call center workers, product line managers, shopfloor folks and workers who need that infrastructure to support teams who are mobile. Using the same yardstick in the name of cost rationalization is a stupid idea.

NEGATIVES

1. It stifles brainstorming and creative thinking within groups. There are many instances when most admirable campaigns happened across the pantry with caffeine and smokes. The strongest of business strategies have happened when the boss has brainstormed with his employees on the fly in a “5 minutes” discussion which turned out to be great strategies on which companies spent millions of dollars.
   
2. It reduces your ability to socially network. Think Office Romances, those chance meetings that get you great jobs, those water cooler talks about office politics and some cool things to do. But what the heck, in today’s world of facebook, orkut and linkedin, many find it more convenient to be digital than physical.
   
3. Costs seem to reduce in short run, but over the long term cost structure of doing business will increase. Now I put costs as one of the primary positives earlier. However I mention it now. The reason is simple. If you see all the savings company gets above starts to tell on the balance sheets and profit & loss accounts quickly. Any cost savings gets reflected in hard currency saved. However, what these measures fail to measure is the ease of doing business which goes through the roof, in a negative manner. Imagine, the amount of money a company will need to spend to make its employees interact with each other. Imagine the amount of money spent to create knowledge sharing tools which at best are still very static. Imagine the cost of brain storming. When an employee gets a brilliant idea, he will not be able to share it instantly. It will need a formal ideas capturing mechanism, which again costs money. Imagine …

That’s all for today.

Kerala version of The Hotel California by The Yeagles

(not my writing ... just recieved this on email from a jokes group)

Just reproducing this hilarious piece.

On the road to Trivandrum

Coconut oil in my hair
Warm smell of avial
Rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance
I saw a bright pink tube-light
My tummy rumbled, I felt weak and thin
I had to stop for a bite
There he stood in the doorway
Flicked his mundu in style
And I was thinking to myself
I don't like the look of his sinister smile
Then he lit up a petromax
Muttering "No power today"
More Mallus down the corridor
I thought I heard them say
Welcome to the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Such a lousy place,
Such a lousy place (background)
Such a sad disgrace,
Plenty of bugs at the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Any time of year
Any time of year (background)
It's infested here
It's infested here
His finger's stuck up his nostril
He's got a big, thick mustache
He makes an ugly, ugly noise
But that's just his laugh
Buxom girls clad in pavada
Eating banana chips
Some roll their eyes, and
Some roll their hips
I said to the manager
My room's full of mice
He said,
Don't worry, saar,I sending you
meen karri, brandy and ice
And still those voices were crying from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them pray
Save us from the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Such a lousy place,
Such a lousy place (background)
Such a sad disgrace
Trying to live at the Hotel Kerala-fonia
It is no surprise
It is no surprise (background)
That it swarms with flies

The blind man was pouring
Stale sambar on rice
And he said
We are all just actors here
In Silk Smitha-disguise
And in the dining chamber
We gathered for the feast
We stab it with our steely knives
But we just can't cut that beef
Last thing I remember
I was writhing on the floor
That cockroach in my appam-stew was the culprit,
I am sure
Relax, said the watchman
This enema will make you well
And his friends laughed as they held me Down
God's Own Country? Oh, Hell !

Will 1 be all, the trepidations of being an Indian

One of my friends raised a very interesting query – between Olympics Gold and Bomb Blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, what are the moments that make me proud to be an Indian.

Before you go on please be aware that “However thin you cut the bread, it will have two sides” … and there is the downside to each of these aspects but what is good is what I am representing here.

Great question, and you know what I am proud of our …

Culture, 

Frankly the best description I have read about how great our culture is comes from a very simple and silly section of the book called “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts. In one of the many trips that Linbaba or Mr Lindsay undertakes in the book, he is traveling to his guide friend’s place somewhere in South India. His description of the rush of people to the “Unreserved Bogie” at Victoria Terminus is both hilarious and significant to my discussion.

At the end of the experience he writes something on the lines of concluding that at the bottom of each Indian lies a set of excellent values that have been created in our culture like no other. On one hand, there are a whole bunch of people who are at each other’s throat trying to kill each other to get that one small piece of space in the bogie to sit, and on the other they touch a persons feet if the overstep in the crowded train later on when the train is running and every one is settled and sitting.

And you know what, I love the values that our system has taught us. It’s amazing how Happy, we Indians seem when compared to any of our global counterparts inspite of so many things that are not working in our lives on a daily basis. It is the basic values and principles that we are taught in our culture.

And you know what I am proud of our Education System.

While my son is today growing up in a totally different education system than mine, I am fully aware of the great things that I got from that Education System. I came across this great initiative in US that speaks of what the western world thinks about it.

And you know what I love our diversity.

Where else can you get the aloo kee tikki, kosha mangshor jhol, the avvial, the Konkani fish curry, the hyderbadi biryani, the ghewar, the chingdee maacher malai curry, the shorshe ilish all together. In fact there are dishes from various places that can keep your appetite whetted for 365 days a year two times a day without ever repeating a menu. And yet we need one common language of ENGLISH (a foreign language) to communicate with our own people. What was yesterday a bane to our society (that English, a foreign language is taking precedence over your own mother tongue) is today our Boon (as those companies who have fuelled India as the Call Center Capital of the world).

More in my next postings.

Indian Restaurants

Well being in Singapore and not writing about the Diaspora of food delights that exist here is a big Crime. So as a true Singaporean (at least I will be while I am here), I will use this space to chat about some of the food joints that I visit from time to time.

Being an Indian, my family loves to eat out at these joints, so I thought of writing about couple of these places that I have been visiting in the past few months.

Rangoli (226 Pasir Panjang Road, Pasir Panjang Village Singapore 118586 ph (65) 6777 6413)
Reaching Here - it is a row of shophouses that stands at the junction of south buona vista road and pasir panjang road. since 1993, it has been slated as a conservation site by the URA.
Food – my favourites are Samosas, Palak Paneer, Mutton Kheema, Chapati, Yellow Daal.
Rating – Food (3/5); Service (3/5); Presentation 3/5)

Zurna (417 /419 East Coast Road (S) 429004 Phone number 63461550)
Reaching Here – Get down at Kembangan MRT, take the south exit, take a taxi, make a right into Jln Kembangan, drive down the Frenkel Road, till you reach the East Coast Crossing. Take a right here and the shop is on the first block on the right side.
Food – tried the Bengali specialities like “Kosha Mangsho” – the literally gravyless mutton, “Chingdi macher malai kari” – the prawn speciality, dal, amongst others.
Rating – Food (2.5/5) Very Spicy; Service (3/5); Presentation (2.5/5)
I hope people visiting my site have a dekko of these places to give me feedback on their experiences.

My next on list to visit is Chilly Code and Bawarchi.

Dont be Serious!!

"Three-fourths of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world will disappear if we step into the shoes of our adversaries and understand their standpoint."~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

How true are those words. They are the words of wisdom. In our day to day practice, when we look at things from some one else' perspective, it can really change our own point of view.

And then, they say, “Don’t be serious be sincere!”
You can do your bidding with a smile on your face.

Chetan Bhagat in his address to Symbiosis Pune said about four pillars / storms in life that can put your spark to sleep.

Disappointments
Frustration
Un Fairness
Loneliness of Purpose

Don’t be emotional with money

Many of my friends are very concerned these days. They form two basic categories of people.

One are those who are reaching the other side of middle age who are worried that they may not have enough when they retire. Inflation is eating all their savings. 

And then there are those on this side of middle age who think they don’t have many avenues these days to invest. Almost all kinds of investments are giving negative returns.

My advice to most people has been to 
1. Realise yourself – be sure of what kind of financial profile you fall in
2. Act according to your profile
3. Set your expectations correct and stop being emotional about it

Today, I will discuss only the first part, Realise yourself. How does that come about?

I have seen the following category of people in my life:

CATEGORY: AGGRESSIVE
These are typically the folks who can do the following well:
1. Take risks with money and not flinch if they fail
2. They are the mavericks and early adopters of investment patterns, they bet big on aspects of investments that they research “enough” but decide using their “guts”
3. Generally understand the laws of demand and supply

CATEGORY: MODERATE
These are typically the folks who can do the following things well:
1. Take calculated risks and sometimes mourn their loss but never get disheartned, maybe become averse to some forms of investments but in general they take the tested path of investment returns
2. They are the mainstream investors with moderate funding sources, and try only the tested formulae in life
3. Generally understand the laws of leverage

CATEGORY: PASSIVE
These are typically the folks who can do the following things well:
1. Take low to minimum risks when it is about money.
2. They are the laggards, not given to losing money at all.
3. Generally border between paranoia or lethargy. Paranoia of risking the money. Lethargy to do the research to invest properly. It may also come from lack of information, knowledge, education or simply pessimism.

CATEGORY: FRIVOLOUS
These are the folks who:
1. Take “unnecessary” risks – some pay off but most don’t.
2. They are the hearsay guys, and their money follows their heart and ears.
3. They are emotional about their money.

If you know which kind of personality profile you are, next time I will talk to you about what kind of actions you should take to make some money.

In the meantime if you have read or interested in reading check this book out, absolutely fantastic in teaching you the basics of investment.

How to create your own career?

I have been asked by many of my colleagues and juniors on how to build and manage career. As I stand at an interesting crossroad on my career, and I don’t know if I am successful yet in what I am trying to do now, I have been considered successful till now and therefore I believe I have some words of suggestion, that you as a reader may find interesting.

Here are some pointers on how to build your career?

1. Setting GOALS is a very important aspect of life.
   a. GOALS must be S.M.A.R.T (Specific-Measurable-Actionable-Result Oriented-TimeBound)
   b. Life can have many aspects. Decide what are most important aspects for you. Some examples of life aspects for which you can decide goals could be: Job, Finance, Personal, Professional.
2. Roadmap – you need to have a roadmap / a plan, on what you want to do with your life. 
   a. Those who are at the start of their career need to create a roadmap of 25 years / 10 years / 5 years / 2 years timeframe.
   b. Those who are in the middle of their career need to look at the 15/10/5 year timeframe or any chunk that they feel comfortable to manage.
   c. Those in their late years can only plan on a 5 year horizon at most.
3. Network – ability to leverage networks is very important. Build networks that can:
   a. Give you advice on how to shape your career
   b. Provide you with opportunities
   c. Help you have fun 
   

These three are essential the building blocks of your career. They form the strategy. 

Next time on this topic, I will discuss how to operationalise this strategy.

Never Burn those Bridges

Never burn bridges.

In a weak moment of rage it may seem the absolute truth to burn the bridge, to speak the unthinkable, to angrily summarise your colleagues’ failures / incompetencies as you see them.
But experience has taught me that there are more than one way of saying what you want to and not burning the bridge.

Always start on a positive note, say what you like about the person and then slowly ease in the direction you would like the colleague to take at work or whatever it is that you want him / her to perform.

Why should you do this? Simple, you and you alone are responsible for your future. But you really don’t know what it has in store for you. Who knows the same person whom you insulted could become your boss! Or if you are running your own business, he / she could be the decision maker on behalf of the customer!! Or worser still, while you are on a roadshow promoting your product, the journalist who needs to take the interview is that same person!!

There are many permutations of what your future holds for you, but are you willing to trade your future for that one moment of passionate outrage? That’s the question that you need to answer, I think I would not burn any bridges unless I really don’t want to cross that river ever in my life.

Night Safari

Took the family to Night Safari for the first time yesterday night. These days my parents stay with me. They came along for a view. Never knew that it is so popular touristy spot. The place was crawling with people.

I have to tell ya, this Family card of the Zoo, its amazing, so thoughtfully it allows for the family plus the grandparents all included. Though the tram ride is not covered, I would have loved to get that also as part of the deal. But anyway, I had three free tickets from the promotion that Samsung ran for their LCD. Used them.

The Singapore zoo and its experience is really awesome, but can at times give you a dent in the pocket. And when you have a growing kid who loves Animal Planet or Discovery, you have to dent your pocket a number of times in a year. Use the family card if you want, I liked it. Give me an opportunity to visit Zoo once a quarter to break even.

Visit the night safari website before going coz you would necessarily want to chalk out the time of various shows. We reached the safari gates at about 7:20 pm time enough to get ourselves seated at the entrance to the Safari tram lines to watch the first show of the night. The cultural performance of Bornean Tribals was loved by my kid. He was looking at the fire eaters with agape. I thought the music and hoola could have been a bit more rhythmic and the chanting could have been a little more realistic. But anyhow worth it if you are there for the first time. Here is a picture I took of the fellows.

The trip through the jungle was awesome to say the least. Moderate night temperatures – no rains (luckily): we saw plenty of animals. My camera did not function in the low light, coz the trams were moving and if I had to click, I was not supposed to move. So do not have any pictures to share from that experience. The trip takes 45 minutes. If you have a handycam, it may work coz the light system and illumination may just be enough for you to take pictures of moving creatures by the night.

Reached the end of the trip just in time for the 8:30 pm Creatures of the Night Show. The most awesome display of nature friendly folks. Oh the game keepers are so good. And the show they put up is something worth all the money you spend at the Safari. Very entertaining. Actually Mom was commenting how good the guys are that the show they put up with those smiling faces and cheer in their voices for show after show without failing to entertain the crowd. That is an achievement worth any fine movie performance. And the entertainment with the owls, pythons, the mountain cats, the raccoons, et al. Amazing. Entertaining. Must do if in Singapore.

We finished off the evening with dinner at the Ulu Ulu restaurant. Had the Indian food. Wont say I had a great experience. Would recommend to those who are extremely home sick for Indian food. Ordered one veg and two non veg combos. The chicken was good, but the biriyani rice was tad dry and not too "biryani" ish as claimed to be. Did not get to taste the cocktails or mocktails but that I will leave for another time.

Returned home to a night of thrilling encounters with creatures of the night.

Opening Innings

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I am excited. I want to blog. And all because I attended a cool panel discussion on new media. What I understood to be the new age journalism. Every netizen can be a reporter for the rest of his or her life. And well I too want to be one.

They say bloggers start but never keep up, so I will start by saying that I will not keep up. I will write only when I feel like it and it may only be once in blue moon.

Why did I want to write. Well I was inspired by my fellow country woman, Meenakshi.

So what am I going to write about. My day to day non happenings. I am a very basic person, love to listen to music, and if it is feet tapping I don't mind tapping my feet. I go to office on a regular day, early in the morning catch a bus to my office work for the day, and then I return back home to my loving wife and kid. Its simple, uncomplicated. And yet it gets complicated in seemingly small ways, in actions, in words, in networks, in politics, in games we play, the books we read, the companion we keep, the dinner we eat, the lunch we cook and so on. And I decided that I am going to write about that.